HEMET: Local man to ride in Rose Parade

John Beers knows firsthand the benefits of organ donation, so he makes sure to spread the word to anyone who will listen.

“I wouldn’t be talking to you today if it hadn’t been for the transplant,” Beers, 68, recently said about the kidney he received in 2005.

Thanks to his volunteer work promoting organ donations, Beers will be among 32 people to ride on the 10th annual Donate Life float in the 2013 Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1.

Beers, who moved to the Four Seasons neighborhood of Hemet two years ago with Brenda, his wife of 47 years, learned he had polycystic kidney disease when he was in his 20s.

When Beers was 6 years old, his father died of the disease at age 46. Twenty years later, his oldest sister was diagnosed, and a study showed that five of the seven Beers’ siblings had the disease.

“At that time I realized if I lived to be his age, I had already lived half my life,” Beers said.

An avid backpacker and mountain climber, Beers had made several 100-plus-mile trips, including climbing Mt. Rainer and Mt. Saint Helens in Washington and Mt. Shasta and Mt. Whitney in California.

“I made 52 climbs,” Beers said. “Five years later, I couldn’t walk a mile on flat ground because of kidney failure.”

Beers was placed on the transplant waiting list at age 55 and a year later had to go on dialysis, all the while continuing work as construction and facilities manager for the Wall Street Journal's 17 printing plants.

He spent four hours a day, three days a week on dialysis, and still, his kidneys became so large that his transplant surgeon recommended removing them to make room for the transplant. The two kidneys tipped the scale at 22 pounds.

Five years after going on the waiting list, Beers received a donated kidney from a woman named Carol, who died from a brain aneurysm at age 57.

Beers eventually met Carol’s husband and thanked him.

“I think he felt good that part of Carol was still living,” said Beers, who will carry Carol’s picture when he rides in the internationally televised parade.

Two years after the transplant, he joined his sons in climbing 12,000 feet up Mt. Whitney, and he still takes annual backpack trips with friends.

“I have trouble sometimes deciding if I can’t do things because I’m 68 years old or if it’s because I’ve had a kidney transplant,” he said.

Beers is a two-time Donate Life Ambassador of the Year for OneLegacy, the nonprofit organ and tissue organization serving the greater Los Angeles area.

Beers said he was selected for the float because of his involvement with the group. He speaks at area schools as an ambassador to promote organ donor registration.

He also works as an ambassador through the Department of Motor Vehicles, at hospitals and with first responders.

To ride on the float, Beers had to go through an involved process that included letters of recommendation and a panel interview.

“Donation changes lives,” Beers said. “People who are on dialysis don’t really have a life. They’re tied to a machine. To have your whole life turned back to where it was before is such an amazing thing. You have a chance by going on a registry to maybe save a life.”